It is known to use, around the periphery of swimming pools, channels covered with gratings made of metal, concrete, polymer concrete or plastics and which convey the accidental overflow water so as to reincorporate it into the swimming pool water treatment cycle.
These channels and their grating are as a general rule of rectangular shape, this moreover corresponding perfectly with the requirements of most swimming pools whose edges are generally straight.
By contrast, when it becomes a question of following the curved edges of swimming pools, the construction of a peripheral gutter then requires the deployment of special gratings whose radius of curvature corresponds perfectly with that of the gutter.
It would be possible to envisage making swimming pool gratings employing the configuration of the gratings described in EP-A-0,526,304 and bending them, but this solution presents a number of problems both as regards the reliability of the gutter and the comfort of the user.
Indeed, when bending the grating about its longitudinal axis, there is a narrowing of the spaces between the ridges situated on the inside of the bent axis, but as a corollary there is an equivalent widening of the spaces between the ridges situated on the outside of the bent axis. These enlarged spaces constitute, through their conical configuration, a meager bearing surface for the foot of the user, and therefore uncomfortable, and allow various objects and litter to penetrate easily into the gutter.
According to another characteristic of the gratings of the prior art, the water penetration orifices are generally located perpendicularly to the longitudinal axis of the gutter and with no asperity other than those necessary to make the upper surface of the grating non-slip. During large overflows, the water from the swimming pool therefore tends to pass over the grating and to spread out beyond the gutter, in time causing a sizable loss of water from the swimming pool which has to be made up periodically.